The present invention relates generally to printing systems and more particularly to a method and system for communicating network printer status changes.
Printing systems, and in particular network printers, offer a myriad of features in addition to plain printing. Some of these features include scheduling, printing, private print, fax, and other types of document handling features. Because of these extra features, there are more status changes in the print job's lifecycle than with standard printing, such as Printing, Processing, Paused, Deleting, etc. Since all jobs are submitted to the printing system through a standard print driver, there is a need to communicate job progress through the standard print driver, in addition to any special client software provided by the printer manufacturer. Furthermore, because these states are more dynamic than normal printing, for example fax progress such as dialing, connecting, transmitting, etc., there is a need to communicate job progress in a continuous manner, practically in real time.
Thus, there is a need for a component in the frontline of the printing system that is capable of monitoring the printing system by monitoring event progress and communicating the job progress status to the printing clients connected to the printing system, wherein the clients are connected to the printing system through various protocols.